APPENDIX D 
237 
There remains, however, a possibility that the term may have 
heen used in a wider sense so as to cover Farming as well as 
Group-assessment. As has been pointed out elsewhere, the two 
methods look very much alike when viewed from above, though 
the difference may be obvious and important to the peasant 
inside the village. In cach case the collector has to deal with an 
individual who has engaged to pay a lump sum on account of a 
village, or some larger area; it may make little difference to him 
whether that individual is a member of the village or an outsider; 
and it is, I think, conceivable that, in the official view, a single 
term might have been used to cover both arrangements. I have 
found no passage which lends any direct support to the view that 
nasaq, in the restricted, specialised, sense, may refer to Farming: 
this restricted use appears, so far as I know, only in the literature 
of Akbar’s reign, and there is nothing to suggest that he coun- 
tenanced Farming, the method of all others most opposed to 
his recorded ideals; the details which we possess point rather to 
Group-assessment; and, on the evidence available, I think it is 
permissible to adopt the interpretation I have given above. 
The possibility that the term includes Farming cannot, however, 
be definitely ruled out; and the matter must be left open pending 
the discovery of further evidence.